StubbyJunior

I love this! Its probably the closest to what I was imagining for the railway. An antiquated relic running more because of a community necessity than a business standpoint; loving the thought of it running off of local demand and donations much more like a heritage railway than a standard line. And I like the idea of parts just being brought from anywhere; just throw it at the wall and see what works. Very cool ideas!

At its longest, a line from Carncreag to Kerlew would be about 28 miles, which is pretty much the distance between Penzance and Truro for context; which would be what 35-40 minutes with a modern service. The middle of the island is relatively flat in comparison to the northern and western areas, which might allow a larger than 3ft gauge, but then again if it had started that size it might have remained so throughout. At the moment I'm thinking an industry very mining orientated; tin, copper, and arsenic at a stretch. (Thinking Penwith area for inspiration) Plus the warmer climate and fertile lands lead to an increased crop yield earlier than the rest of Cornwall (The islands location itself creating a meteorological problem for western Cornwall leading to a slightly colder climate). And fish of course, though I'm aware that fresh produce has a time limit and the potential train -> boat -> train transportation would not help that shelf life. This would be interesting, though maybe warranting a more substantial harbour at Penzance to accommodate such a ship. An early pioneer of some form of containerisation does sound good. No need to apologise, the premise was on rocky foundations to begin with :D, but the conversations sprouted here have been interesting to read regardless! That is an important point, I doubt there would be sufficient locomotive builder on the island that could compare to the output or efficiency of a 'mainland' one. So from vague estimates on google maps, the gap would be just shy of a kilometre, which wouldn't be a terrible distance, the only problem being the 70ft high cliffs that surround the Lands End area and would probably be mirrored on the island side. Maybe that's a feasible gap for construction (I'm no bridge builder), but perhaps it would be on the sketchier side of things

Ah, seems as if I've managed to fundamentally misunderstand Wikipedia. You'd have thought that back in the day they would've had the forethought to name their railways much more originally, so that silly people in the future like myself could differentiate them easier, but there we go. At the moment I'm about 50/50 on whether you're asking to buy a tract of land used for mining or a strong wind of 34-47 knots.

Hi all, son of Stubby47 here. Just thought I would drop in to add some context behind the initial prompt of this thread. Now I cannot claim to be a huge model rail enthusiast, I've never had the creative expertise or technical knowhow to even know where to begin; instead finding a rather niche interest in worldbuilding, map making, and just generally being a nerd for most things historical. And it was with one of my latest sessions of procrastination that I learned about the mythical land of Lyonesse which supposedly lies of the coast of Cornwall between Lands End and the Isles of Scilly. I decided that I wanted to create a map of such a place, and taking inspiration from another map online, have been creating this (I've hit upload but I've no idea where that picture is going to appear). My main line of questioning to father about this was as follows: Had the island followed in the footsteps of the West Cornwall Railway and had been 7ft wide (Perhaps also designed by Brunel or the like), following the WCR being bought out by the Great Western Railway, would it have become standard gauge, and if not, what the rolling stock look like if it still existed today. To my understanding, the line between Penzance and Truro was broad gauge whilst Truro to Plymouth was Standard, meaning that passengers would have to change trains to continue their journey. Given that anyone traveling from my town of Carncreag or Gwermouth would have had to exchange at Kerlew regardless of the gauge, does this mean that the gauge would have remained untouched despite the GWR potentially taking over. I know there are many factors to play here; would there have even been a standard railway on the island in the first place, would it all have been narrow gauge or axed by Beeching in the 60s; all that and more, but I'd be curious to hear anyones thoughts on the subject. Finally, please understand that I am not an expert on railways, and so anything I have said here might be incredibly wrong or narrowminded, so be gentle with me. Thank you!